15 finalists selected for the 2019 VHA Shark Tank competition

Through Diffusion of Excellence (DoE), VA employees have the power to lead frontline-driven innovation that improves experiences for the Veteran community. DoE’s flagship program, the VHA Shark Tank Competition, offers VA employees the opportunity to share practices that address clinical and operational priorities to improve the Veteran care experience. The program has already impacted the lives of over 100,000 Veterans at more than 150 VA facilities across the country.

Kicking off the countdown to the VHA Innovation Experience

To date, the Competition has identified 47 practices that are impacting Veterans’ lives every day. This year, 15 finalists have been selected to compete during the VHA Innovation Experience (iEx) for the chance to launch their solutions at new facilities and impact Veterans nationwide. Proposed practices address key VA priorities (Access, High Reliability, and Veteran Experience) and include solutions related to suicide prevention, Parkinson’s Disease, teledentistry, and other issues affecting Veterans’ lives.

Finalists will pitch their practices to both Network and VA Medical Center Director Sharks at the Competition. In just two minutes, they will have to demonstrate how their practice makes a difference, what it takes to implement, and – most importantly – why the Sharks should choose their practice. As the Sharks learn about each practice, they will bid resources – such as equipment, staff, or time – to win the chance to implement the practice in their facility or VISN.

Join us in counting down to iEx and stay tuned for more information on how to watch this year’s VHA Shark Tank Competition live on Oct. 22 and learn more about how these practices are changing and saving Veteran lives.

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Matthew Razak

Matthew Razak supports VA as a contractor with Atlas Research, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm providing strategic advisory and applied research services to federal health and social service agencies. Matt has been working with VA for the past six years supporting social media and communication efforts.

The thing that needs to be changed is the complaint process! When a Veteran puts in a complaint nothing happens! Why? From my experience of filing complaints the VA here has to have someone answer the complaint, however the Veteran NEVER knows what they have done. Why hasn’t the complaint been rectified? Why is there still the same issues? Why are there not any changes once the complaint is filed?

Well what you have to do is file a FOIA with the VA. Then you have to wit about 3 or 4 weeks if you are lucky. After you receive the FOIA then you will notice that when the complaint was filed and the local VA contacted you then there were many FALSE statements put into the letter going back. If you just filed it with the local PA then there will be no record of most of them for some reason.

In short the local VA will cover up everything they can and continue to do what THEY want and what THEY have done for years. Be careful as you will have to be strong to battle the retaliation from the leadership at your local. If you don’t file the complaints and then finally take them to the OIG then the VA will never get better than it is right now. Sad but true!